Recovering UVA grad Dozier visits old office

Eight months after CBS News correspondent and UVA grad school grad Kimberly Dozier was injured in an roadside explosion in Iraq, she is now well enough to visit with her former colleagues. On Monday, January 29, Dozier arrived in the New York newsroom where she was greeted and applauded by approximately 100 of her coworkers, according to a story posted on cbsnews.com.

"Last May we had Hell open on us. That's when I found out what this place was really like. People I didn't know reached out to me, to my family, and also reached out to the families of Paul and James," said Dozier according to the story.

Dozier, 40, who earned a masters in foreign affairs from UVA in 1993, was critically wounded May 29 as she and her crewprepared a Memorial Day story about U.S. troops in Iraq. Although all were wearing helmets, protective eyeglasses, and flak jackets, two cameramen, Paul Douglas and James Brolan, died in the explosion, as did Army Captain James Funkhouser, a 35-year-old father of two, and an Iraqi translator.

Dozier has spent the last eight months recovering from the injuries to her head and legs. Though doctors initially feared she might lose a leg, surgeries were successful in sparing the limb and through intense physical therapy she can now walk again. She faces one remaining surgery, according to the CBS report: to repair her right eardrum, which was destroyed in the blast.

She has written about the experience in another piece published last month on CBSnews.com.
"In the mornings when I wake and fight to work off the stiffness in my legs to stand, I remember it all too clearly," she wrote. "And then, thank God that I am here to remember it, and wish again my friends were here too."